Sales Idioms

buyer's market

- a situation where there are more sellers than buyers of a product or service and the buyers have an advantage

It was a buyer's market and the price of fruit was very cheap.

come down in price

- to lower the price of one's product, to become cheaper

We were forced to come down in price in order to sell our target number of cars for the month.

come in high

- to charge too much for your services, to ask for a price that is too high

The salesman came in high during the negotiations and could not sell his product.

come in low

- to offer a low amount of money for a product or service

The company came in low with an offer for our product.

corner the market

- to dominate a particular market with your product

The large company has cornered the market for cell phones in our city.

a hard sell

- a way of selling something that is very aggressive and uses much pressure

The car salesman gave us a hard sell so we went to another car dealer.

have good contacts

- to know people who can help you get a job or do some kind of business

The salesman has good contacts and always sells many products.

knock down the price of (something) or knock the price of (something) down

- to lower the price of something

I bargained hard so that I could knock down the price of the DVD player.

land an account

- to acquire an account

The salesman landed a large account on his first day of work.

line of products

- a group or category of products that are similar to each other

Our company will introduce a new line of products in the autumn.

make a cold call

- to visit or telephone a potential but unknown customer from a list of people

When he first started to work at his company the salesman was asked to make cold calls from the telephone book.

make an offer

- to make a financial proposal for a product or service

We plan to make an offer to buy the house on Saturday.

move a product

- to sell a product

We should have no trouble to move the new product.

preferred customer

- a customer who does much business with you and who you give special discounts to

The man is a preferred customer and we always give him a good price.

sell like hotcakes

- to sell very quickly

The children's toys were selling like hotcakes at the end of the year.

seller's market

- a situation where there are more buyers of a product/service than sellers so the sellers have an advantage

It was a seller's market for houses and the houses were increasing in value.